


Thief of "Hearts"

by Rose Argent (roseargent)



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Awkward First Times, Dubiously Consensual Fluff, Hand Jobs, M/M, Marking, Mutual Masturbation, Possessive Behavior, Self-cest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-22 23:15:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14319216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseargent/pseuds/Rose%20Argent
Summary: Akechi needs a new unique Persona, and enters his own Palace to claim one.





	Thief of "Hearts"

**Author's Note:**

  * For [labocat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/labocat/gifts).



> I know Morgana says that Persona-users can't have Palaces, but it seems likely that's not necessarily true of Wild Cards. Also I just really wanted Akechi to have a Palace.
> 
> I hope you enjoy the fic!

Akechi had known he had a Palace for a long time. No one else was using the Metaverse then, so it hadn't mattered. It was a weakness, now, but not one he could afford to eradicate--none of the methods for destroying a Palace were ones he wanted to apply to himself. A change of heart? Stupid. He desires, his goal, kept him strong. If they were "distorted," so be it. It was all because of Shido, anyway--his Palace would disappear on its own when Shido was at his mercy.

The Phantom Thieves would never know him well enough to find it, so it wasn't even that much of a weakness. And now, maybe it could even be an asset--a Palace meant a Shadow, another Persona, another mask. It has never seemed worth the trouble before--Loki had been all he needed--but he needed something new, something that would appeal to the Phantom Thieves.

So he stared up at his "distorted desires" made real, and laughed. His Palace was a film set. Of course it was. Wasn't his whole life one big act? Ace Detective. Loyal subordinate. "Phantom Thief collaborator" was just his next role.

Once he entered the Palace, he could only laugh more. Not just a film set, but some sort of Super Sentai bullshit. Heroes and teammates and justice, like it was _made_ for the Phantom Thieves. It was _perfect_. 

It didn't take long for his Shadow to show up. They always showed up as soon as they knew there was an intruder--it made his job so much easier. Poor Phantom Thieves, needing to get all the way to the core of the Palaces. When he'd followed them through Okumura's, it looked exhausting. 

"There you are. Let's go, form a pact with me." 

The Shadow just looked at him, smiling. "I don't know about that. It doesn't seem like you really get me yet. Maybe you need to see a little more of our Palace."

Akechi felt a sneer twisting his features. He had to keep his expression under control all the time in the real world, and the bland look on his Shadow's face was too much like what he saw when he watched his TV interviews. Fake, boring, perfect. "Why should I have to get to know a mask I wear to fool scapegoats?"

"Is that what you think this Palace is about?" The look the Shadow gave him was almost _pity_. And he couldn't even shoot it without giving himself a mental shut down. 

The Shadow disappeared before Akechi could form a coherent retort, and its voice echoed out of thin air. "You'll have to find me again. Until then, have a good look at yourself. What do you _really_ want, for your Palace to look like this, Akechi?"

"Get back here!" Loki hadn't been like this. He'd been eager to take the opportunity to run wild through the Metaverse, and made the pact without any fuss.

It made Akechi feel a little better to tear through the weaklings infesting the Palace-- _his_ Palace--but no matter how deep he went, his Shadow didn't reappear. And the scenery was... nauseating. Teamwork! Justice!

He didn't need anyone. He'd been fine on his own all this time. 

He was also, however, running low on healing items. The shadows in this Palace really liked throwing around the status effects. He'd been able to avoid getting hit so far, but it was a pain in the ass. Loki was made for doing a lot of damage very quickly, not this kind of long trudge through wave after wave of enemies. He'd never _needed_ a decent healing spell before, and so never really paid attention to the fact that Loki didn't have one. Or even a crappy one.

There was trafuri... he could leave, stock up, and try again...

But he'd come this far. The thought of turning back grated. No. He'd keep going.

And going.

And going. 

The Palace seemed endless. This was what the Phantom Thieves were doing all the time? No wonder they travelled in a herd, like sheep.

Akechi didn't need that. He was strong enough for this. It was just _tedious_. 

It was easy enough to keep believing that until a shadow finally managed to nail him with an a flash bomb, and dizziness hit him like a truck. None of his attacks were connecting, and this _weakling_ was picking away at him a little at a time. He could still have Loki cast trafuri. He was going to have to. 

The shadow dissolved into mist as a powerful attack hit it from behind, and Akechi's Shadow stepped into view. "Giving up?"

Suddenly trafuri didn't seem like an option anymore.

His Shadow crouched down beside him, and Akechi wondered when he'd ended up on the floor. He was still dizzy. He glared up at his Shadow accusingly. "You're extending the effect somehow."

"Something like that." A little shrug and that infuriating fake smile, and then the Shadow was coming closer. Akechi braced for an attack, but the thing only wrapped its arms around him. Hugging him. 

What. 

"I keep waiting for you to get it, but you're not going to, are you?"

Akechi tried to headbutt his Shadow. Surely at this range, he couldn't miss no matter how dizzy he was. But the Shadow twitched its head out of the way almost lazily, and Akechi just hit it in the shoulder awkwardly. 

"This is your Palace. It's your desires made real. What do you see everywhere you look? Teammates. Friends. People who care about you and want you around."

Baring his teeth, Akechi tried to pull away from the Shadow, but the thing was _strong_ , stronger than a human. Stronger than Akechi, at least, despite wearing his shape. The bullshit coming out of its mouth was especially gross in Akechi's own voice. 

"Don't be stupid. It's _actors_ , pretending to be all those things. I don't need anyone else. I can't trust anyone else. You should know that, if you're really a part of me."

The Shadow sighed, like a disappointed parent, and Akechi flinched reflexively. "Let go of me."

"No." The Shadow said it cheerfully, still with that smile on its face, but there was something implacable in the tone of its voice. And then it pulled Akechi close enough that all he could see was the Shadow's chest. 

Where were its clothes? Where were its _clothes_?! 

"You're allowed to have nice things." The Shadow's lips were on his neck, and Akechi wasn't sure if it was the dizziness or the absolute absurdity of it all that kept him from flinching away. 

"What the hell are you doing?"

Akechi could feel the smile as the Shadow's lips moved on his throat. "I'm going to be a Phantom Thief, so I'm stealing your virginity."

"I'm not..." The denial was halfway out of his mouth before Akechi remembered he was trying to lie to a part of his own mind. "That's not the point, stop this!"

Again, that calm, unmovable, "No." The Shadow slipped a hand down to Akechi's thigh, wiggling down the tight fabric of one of Akechi's boots until it stopped at one of the straps holding it up. "Too many buckles."

And then Akechi was in his school uniform again, and the trousers were halfway down his thighs before he could blink at the transition. Just like that, he was no longer considered a threat to the owner of the Palace. He was pretty sure this counted as cheating, in some obscure way, but _that_ at least seemed in character for something that was, after all, him. 

Even if the rest of this was weird as hell.

The Shadow pushed him down onto his back on the floor, holding him there easily with one hand--what kind of muscle-bound Persona would it be, to be this strong? The other hand pulled Akechi's trousers down one slow inch at a time, lips following with a trail of kisses along the inside of first one thigh, then the other. Akechi grabbed at the arm holding him down but, unable to budge it even a fraction of an inch, he was left just hanging on for dear life as the Shadow nipped at the back of his knee and sent pleasure shooting up his spine like lightning. 

For just a second, Akechi couldn't even form a cogent thought. That had felt absurdly good. It was a _knee_ , for fuck's sake.

Pausing in its exploration of Akechi's legs, the Shadow hummed and slid its free hand under the edge of Akechi's uniform jacket, cupping the growing bulge there. "You see? I know what we like. You do, too, but I'm better at admitting it." And then it was back down between Akechi's legs, its kisses getting harder now, sucking on the skin and leaving tingly, reddening marks in its wake. 

Akechi made a little noise--one he refused to put a name to--and it only seemed to encourage the Shadow. It left Akechi's pants tangled just below his knees and started tracing its way back up his thighs, nipping at the already-sensitive skin now. It made no attempt to still Akechi's squirming, and in truth Akechi wasn't sure he was actually trying to get away anymore. 

Laughing--a soft, throaty sort of laugh totally unlike the fake chuckle Akechi had mastered in reality--the Shadow sat back and looked down at its handiwork. Mouthwork. Whatever. Akechi craned his neck to follow the Shadow's gaze, and felt his face flush scarlet as he saw the unmistakable hickeys and bite marks all over his thighs. "How _will_ you explain this in gym class?" It sounded entirely too proud of itself. 

Still red-faced with embarrassment and a little anger, Akechi nonetheless felt his cock go from half-hard to entirely ready. 

"See? I know what you want." The Shadow trailed its free hand over the marks it had left, smirking down at Akechi. "These say someone wants you. Someone claims you." Leaning in, one hand still braced on Akechi's chest, the Shadow breathed into Akechi's ear, "Everyone will know you've been loved."

Akechi's humiliated growl wavered and turned into a moan as his Shadow left off playing with the hickeys and hooked a finger under the waistband of his underwear, tugging them down just enough to free his erect cock. It rubbed a thumb over the slit, just once, and Akechi came all over the Shadow's hand. Embarrassed beyond words, Akechi covered his face with his hands. 

That just happened. 

"Aww, it's okay. You'll be ready to go again in a minute." The hand holding him down finally moved away, only to be replaced with the Shadow's weight--Akechi did _not_ weigh that much, it had to be something to do with its Persona form--as it settled against him, chest to chest, one thigh between his, and its--his, undeniably 'his'--own cock hard against Akechi's hip. "And anyway, I still want my turn."

Stupidly strong hands pried Akechi's away from his burning face, and drew them down between the Shadow's legs, lifting his hips just enough to give Akechi room to work. "You know how to do this. I know you do. Go ahead and pretend I'm someone else, if it helps." The smile on the Shadow's face turned just a little cruel, for a moment. "I won't say his name if you don't want me to. But you know who I mean, don't you?"

Not quite able to meet those golden eyes, Akechi turned his face away. But his fingers curled around the too-familiar cock and tugged lightly, rubbing his thumb over the slit just the way the Shadow had done to him. They did like the same things--his Shadow breathed in sharply, almost a hiss, and Akechi did it again just to hear that noise one more time. The angle was wrong to pretend he was just alone in his room, fucking his own left hand and thinking of... someone, but the shape of it, the feel of it, was exactly like he was holding his own cock. 

This whole thing was starting to feel more than a little surreal, but in a weird way that made it easier. Akechi's hand barely felt like it belonged to him as he stroked his Shadow's length, using the light touch that he knew made it last longer. He couldn't see what he was doing, with his hand trapped between their bodies, and suddenly he wanted to. Would it be like seeing Re-- someone else's hand on his cock? 

Suddenly, Akechi was ready to go again, as predicted, and he chose not to closely examine the exact timing.

The Shadow wrapped his hand around Akechi's cock again, and this time Akechi focused hard on what he was doing with _his_ hands, on the weird distance he was feeling from his body, so that he wouldn't embarrass himself again. Eyes narrowing in concentration, he stroked a little harder, a little faster, deliberately not thinking too much about where the lube slicking the Shadow's palm had come from--wherever the Shadow's clothes had gone to, maybe. He wasn't going to come first, this time. 

But the Shadow only smiled fiercely down at him and stepped his game up to match Akechi's movements.

In the end it was the gloves that made the difference, Akechi was convinced. There was something in the slide of soft, smooth leather over flesh that dragged all sorts of interesting noises out of his Shadow. He wondered what it felt like from the other side, and the thought alone was interesting enough that he came again just a few strokes after his Shadow.

The smile on his Shadow's face was softer, now, the sort of smile that couldn't be faked. "Well. I guess I owe you a forfeit."

They'd made no such deal, but Akechi's eyes widened as there was a swirl of black around them and what knelt over him was no longer his Shadow, but a Persona. "I am thou. Thou art I. Even if you don't want to admit it." Akechi barely heard the words of the pact, he was so busy staring at the massive, _ridiculous_ wall of muscle just a few inches from his nose. "It's okay if you don't get me. Someone needs to watch over you."

The Persona stood, and pulled Akechi to his feet (no wonder it could manhandle Akechi like he was made of feathers--it was _enormous_ ). They were both clean, and dressed, if dressed ridiculously. At least they looked suitably heroic. 

Brushing off the weirdness of the whole encounter--though he knew it would come back to haunt him when he was alone in bed that night--Akechi turned with a flourish. "Let's go, then, Robin Hood. We've rubes to deceive and hearts to steal." 

Robin Hood bowed, and Akechi could have sworn there was a trace of smugness on its expressionless face as it disappeared into the back of his mind with Loki. He swallowed down a shiver of unease, and logged out of the Metaverse. 

He needed nothing from weaklings who huddled together for survival. He would use the Phantom Thieves and throw them away.

He'd never be the one to have his heart stolen.


End file.
